"Pike breastplate numbers for aesthetics" Topic

My bases are 16 10mm figures on a 30mm square base. The plan is to paint 2 Pike stands per game unit (with 4 musket bases of 9-12 men) I reckon this will give me the most flexibility to represent both sides for the whole war – I will be painting about 55% in red coats, the rest a lot of blue with some other colours. One of each pair of stands has the 'command figures' (Officer, drummer, Standard)

How how many breastplates should I do for the pike units. I know they fell out of favour as the war went on – they are going to be aesthetic only, as they don't make any difference in the 2 sets of rules I have (Pike and Shotte and Regiment of Foote).

It doesn't have to be a precise number – Some stands could have none, others the upper end of the range.

So you have some idea what the finished stands look like

link

Showing 0 posts – think I got bugged. Can people see OP?

Yes, sir. I can see your post . . . but TMP seems to be having some difficulties enumerating posts right now (at least I've seen it on some different threads as well as yours).

As for the armored pikemen, what I've chosen to do is to have about a third of my pike stands have an armored front rank only. But that's just me. I would put your armored figures in the front rank (and following ranks as well if you prefer).

As you say, the armor fell out of use as the war went on and the troops found it too fatiguing on their constant marching . . . so anything you choose (depending upon what part of the wars you are representing) is workable.

Have fun!

-- Jeff

I'm guessing some form of uniformity in clothing, but with variations – different colour socks and trousers scattered into a unit as men find replacements on the march.

Also the buff leather over jacket- a few foot wearing it, or whole units,or none?

Hi last hussar, its thought that for infantry the buff coat was only worn by the London Trained Bands. The buff coat was pretty expensive, so thought unlikely to be used by most foot and there is a mention of 'trained band buff' regarding the ltbs. Most horse seem to have had them however.

I'm with Timbo on this one. Buffcoats restricted to LTB and officers. Cavalry aimed to have Buffcoats but some Royalists didn't achieve this, especially later in the war.

Armour for pike front ranks early in the war but even then not for all of the units. LTB were likely to have access to armour due to the supplies stockpiled in the Tower of London.

Uniformity wasn't as common as we like to think. Most units got a soldier's coat to wear over their civilian clothing. The only times we can say for certain that issues of clothing went beyond that is with the King's Oxford Army and the New Model Army. We have evidence of the items ordered for both. Even then it's not that uniform. The NMA ordered coats in red cloth from several suppliers with a requirement for the cloth to be of one of (IIRC)three types. This suggests the possibility of different shades of red being provided from different suppliers. Breeches were to be of a sober colour so any drab shade of brown, gray etc would probably be available. The truth is we just don't know for certain.

Cheers all. Because of the Generic nature I want, I'm going to have units with just the front of 4 ranks armoured, and just a couple of units with men in leather coats (didn't want to say 'in the buff')